I don't think the users of spreadsheets are dumb. I think they don't have an appreciation for organization of data to allow for efficient machine-readability. Your use of a spreadsheet as a game editor shows that you're one of the exceptions that proves the rule.
The free-form nature of spreadsheets, in my experience, almost always makes for human readable repositories of data that are nearlyuseless from an automated processing perspective. I cringe when I'm asked to export data from a database into a spreadsheet for users to edit, because I know I'm going to get back an unparsable mess that I'm going to have to invest time in to make usable again.
The spreadsheet is, effectively, shifting the user's inability to understand why data needs to be organized well off to a programmer (or some other grunt) who ends up fixing all the data up. (Or, alternatively, nobody fixes it up and the business ends up making bad decisions based on garbage data that came from a spreadsheet that's a disorganized mess.)
> I don't think the users of spreadsheets are dumb. I think they don't have an appreciation for organization of data to allow for efficient machine-readability.
Well said...it's that concept of machine-readability that is so core to efficient data investigation and interoperability with other enterprises (such as web apps)...theoretically, such a concept is learnable without a decent jump into the computer science/programming waters...but honestly, I haven't run into many lay persons who have figured it out well enough for themselves.
The free-form nature of spreadsheets, in my experience, almost always makes for human readable repositories of data that are nearlyuseless from an automated processing perspective. I cringe when I'm asked to export data from a database into a spreadsheet for users to edit, because I know I'm going to get back an unparsable mess that I'm going to have to invest time in to make usable again.
The spreadsheet is, effectively, shifting the user's inability to understand why data needs to be organized well off to a programmer (or some other grunt) who ends up fixing all the data up. (Or, alternatively, nobody fixes it up and the business ends up making bad decisions based on garbage data that came from a spreadsheet that's a disorganized mess.)
Edit: Grammar.